Steerable loudspeaker arrays, such as line arrays, provide a conventional method for adjusting the coverage pattern provided by a sound system. The coverage patterns may be adjusting using beam steering techniques to provide a coverage pattern which is adapted to the particular architecture of a venue, thereby resulting in a greater proportion of direct sound received by audience members and reducing unwanted reverberation effects or destructive interference. Steerable sound systems may improve audio quality and listening experience for audience members in a given venue.
However, steerable loudspeaker arrays suffer from the drawback that programming the array with the desired coverage pattern must typically be performed in advance by generating a three-dimensional model of the venue and obtaining DPS parameters by running simulations with the model, for example. This may be time-consuming and costly, as well as requiring specialized knowledge and equipment. In addition, the coverage pattern generated by this method is static, and therefore unable to adapt to changes in audience size, shape, or distribution. This may result in significant wastage of power when high-intensity sound is directed toward regions of a venue with no audience members, for example. This may also result in sub-optimal sound quality for those audience members who are in the audience, since the loudspeaker array may not be optimized for their particular position or distribution. There is thus a need for an adaptive loudspeaker steering system which can alter the coverage pattern of the loudspeaker array according to a location, density, distribution, shape, or number of audience members.